CABO SAN LUCAS FISH REPORT
Capt. George Landrum
Fly Hooker Sportfishing
www.flyhooker.com
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
Feb. 22-28, 2010
Weather: Mostly sunny skies made us happy all week and the temperatures could not have been better. The morning lows were down to 59 degrees a couple of days and our daytime highs were as high as 87 degrees. We had no rain but did have a bit of a breeze during the middle of the week.
Water: Water conditions were mixed this week. At the end of the week the water on both sides of the Cape were in the 73-74 degree range from Past Punta Gorda on the Cortez side to the San Jaime Bank on the Pacific side and this warm water extended to the south 30 miles and more. In a change from our usual, the warm water was off color, being a bit on the green side and occasionally very green. The only place anyone was able to find good blue water was 40 miles to the south, but it was 71 degrees and a long run. Surface conditions were decent on both sides of the peninsula but directly south the currents collided and for 25 miles the water was very disturbed and cross-chopped and swelled.
Bait: There were Pacific Green-backed Mackerel at the normal $3 per bait and up in the Palmilla area boats were selling Sardinas in the 3' size for $25 a scoop.
FISHING
Billfish: I wish I had better news on the Billfish, but it seems to have become a common refrain every week for me, once again there were Striped Marlin caught, but not in numbers to get excited about. Fish were seen close to the shore in the greenish water on the Cortez side, we had anglers this week bottom fishing for Grouper and Snapper who dropped a live mackerel halfway to the bottom while fishing in 150 feet of water and they hooked two Marlin, releasing one and losing the other. Other boats were seeing one here and one there on the surface in the same type of conditions. There was no consistent bite nor was there any regularity to the areas they were being found.
Yellowfin Tuna: Well, the Yellowfin had some regularity to where they were being found, and that was way out there! Most of the fish found this week were from football size to 30 pounds and it was a long run for a consistent bite. While there were fish found as close as 18 miles due south and 24 miles at 210 degrees, most of the action this week was due east 35 miles or due south at 40 miles, a long two hour run for the charters. If you got into the right porpoise pod the action was hot and heavy, but there were a lot of pods that were not associated with fish. If you were in the right ones, almost anything was working, from feathers to marlin lures to cedar plugs, it didn't seem to matter.
Dorado: The Dorado seemed to be missing in action this week. While boats were able to find the type of debris that would normally hold these fish (weed lines, dead seals, wood) there were no fish under any of them. An occasional flag was flying from outriggers at the end of the day, but I saw no boat with more than two yellow flags.
Wahoo: What Hoo?? I saw lots of orange flags flying this week, but they were all for Sierra.
Inshore: Once again inshore fishing was where you wanted to be for consistent action. While the fish were not large, there was an abundance. The most common catch was Sierra and most boats did not have any problem limiting on them. Small swimming plugs, hootchies and live Sardinas, all rigged with a small trace of wire leader resulted in plenty of fish in the box. Anglers working yo-yo style jigs of rocky bottom did well on Amberjack to 25 pounds, Grouper to 20 pounds and Snapper to 20 pounds with an occasional larger specimen of each in the mix. There were also plenty of Roosterfish to be had, unfortunately most of them were the small 5 pound or less class, but there was an occasional school of 20-25 pound fish that gave good action. Yellowtail provided some steady action with fish to 30 pounds for boats that worked the points on the Pacific side, but several shrimp boats put a crimp on the action as they anchored on the schools and had 10 guys hand-lining with shrimp heads as bait. Watching the fish come over the rail one after the other really let you know how many there were in the school. After the boats left (two days on the spots) you were lucky to find one Yellowtail.
Notes: Whales are still providing a show for everyone, both Humpbacks and a few Gray whales are always in view. I don't know if there is any correlation between these things, but along with the warm, green water has come the Humboldt Squid. A lot of the boats are stopping to jig up a few of these after a long offshore trip just to get something for their anglers to pull on. Spot the bird piles working just off the surface and you can see the squid. Pull up so that your lures sink and pretty soon you are hooked up. Don't get inked though, it's pretty nasty to get off. Our Tsunami after the earthquake in Chile was a non-event. We had a few hours of the marina water ebbing and surging, stirring up the bottom silt and turning the water in the Marina a really dirty color. I heard that the marina in San Jose had a few issues, mostly because of the narrow entrance causing a 5-knot current during the surges, but all in all things are fine. Until next week, tight lines!